This blog is maintained by two authors from the Great American Midwest

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Messin' With The Kid

What`s this I hear
There`s a whole lotta talk
The people say you try to quit the kid

Two weeks ago a client called and asked if I would perform some work as a Photoshop jockey, my old career. He promised a profitable assignment I could do right here at home. Why not? Well it's not as easy as it once was. I do have this other half-life working at the big box outfitter place so my schedule does not permit full-time dedication as it once did. His schedule was generous so I took it on and worked on it in my spare time. I may be 60 years old but when it comes to Photoshop I'm still a kid. So. You want to mess with the kid?

It was a profitable project but it took all of my spare time for almost a week with no time to fart, belch or even scratch my junk. Missed a lot of sleep along the way. I mean it was one intense project. But not for the kid.

When all was said and done I made a nice chunk o' change (a few thou) in my spare time and all went well. Client was very happy. No regrets either way. It felt good to ramp up the old Photoshop chops again. It proved this old kid still has it.

In a related incident. Back at the hobby job one of the young guns had some issues recently. More than a month ago he disappeared. Like falling off the earth one day disappearedand nobody was talking. Top secret. Rumors spread but I paid no attention since it is none of my business.

Jeff was a good kid, younger than my son and very mature for his age. We have a mutual respect, something odd in young people these days. You see, Jeff was above me in his position at the store and I respected his position and was fine with that. On the other hand Jeff looked up to me and not only asked for my advice often he absorbed it and believed in it. I took on the role of his mentor and he was fine with that. He has an old school work ethic and is passionate about his hunting, both the four AND two legged kind. Some of the rumors (cough) had to do with the latter. I call it messin' with the kid.

Yesterday Jeff suddenly showed up at the store. He was coming back to his old job in two weeks. I asked what the had been doing since he had left. Jeff told me he was working in Chicago as a production scheduling manager. When I asked him the company he was working for I knew exactly where he was and what he was doing. This was a shock to him. I explained that I once spent over thirty years in that world and was well aware of the company he had been working for. He was thrilled because nobody he had explained it to understood anything about it.

After some discussion about my abilities with the software and how I once made my nut with he was impressed with my Photoshop experience. This kid still has it. Jeff the kid does too and soon he will be returning to his old job with a healthy increase in responsibility AND compensation. And that's how it's done I told him. become valuable by your absence. IF you're good they'll want you back and reward you handsomely. It worked for me for over thirty years. Good for the kid. I'm proud of him.

The company Jeff was with had a ton of retouching business for major agencies as I recall and asked him if it was still big business for them. His eyes opened up as he said, "they do no retouching anymore here in the U.S.". Huh?

Jeff said the huge graphics conglomerate he was working for had outsourced ALL their photo retouching business to an affiliate in India, where it was being executed for…gag…cough….$3. per hour??? Some kid in India is taking a job I once did for $75 per hour.

$3. per hour? Call it what you want, I call that messin' with THIS old kid.